Champions League and Football Pitches
By Caroline Kruit, International Business Developer for Metadecor
At Metadecor, we create (read: engineer, produce, assemble, and install) remarkable façades all over the world. Along with ceilings, screens, and more. We tend to stay rather down-to-earth about it. Yes, we’ve set up an innovative pavilion at the Architecture Biennale in Venice. We’re working on unique façades in Europe, a golden pergola in the US... But we also apply the same craftsmanship and attention to detail when making a modest cladding for a materials depot in MD Strekmetaal.
"Who does not honour the small, is not worthy of the great." This litteral translation of the Dutch saying ‘Wie het kleine niet eert, is het grote niet weerd’ can be interpreted in many different ways in façade construction. It could relate to the scale of projects, their complexity, or even small details like screws (in the same colour as the panel being installed). Potential projects need to align with the way we work. Do we make special things? Absolutely! But we also make ‘ordinary’, very neat façades. Not everything we make is shown on news websites and social media, or at trade shows.
Presentation about SOMBRA, May 7th 2025, during Future Façade in Utrecht (NL). From left: Nikola Znaor (Airshade Technologies), Caroline Kruit and Martin Elslo (Metadecor).
Future Facade, Biennale Venice
Week 19 of 2025 was quite a rollercoaster for Metadecor. We attended a trade show in Utrecht and an opening (and what an opening: the Biennale!) in Venice, we had numerous projects in an exciting stage of assembly and installation, new projects and intensive acquisition talks. All of that in just four days (Monday May 5th was a Dutch national holiday). Staying grounded and maintaining our usual down-to-earth approach was certainly a challenge.
At the (new) Future Facade trade show in Utrecht (7th and 8th May 2025), we showcased patterns in aluminium and steel. In the Maze of Innovations, we presented a glimpse of the ingenuity and beauty of the SOMBRA pavilion, which we developed for the Time Space Existence exhibition in Venice in collaboration with a top team of companies. Innovation, unique façades, and smart construction techniques were the main topics of discussion.
Impression of the opening days of SOMBRA in Marinaressa Giardini in Venice (8-10 May, 2025).
Champions League
With the opening of SOMBRA (on 10th May 2025), we suddenly found ourselves in the Champions League final: the reactions to the pavilion in Venice – and the publications that appeared the following week on major platforms – told us that we had truly created something unique. Norman Foster, in collaboration with Porsche, developed a pier in the Arsenale, while MVRDV, with Metadecor, created a pavilion in the Marinaressa Giardini. Forget Dutch modesty: this is a masterpiece!
The initiators of SOMBRA: Nikola Znaor (Airshade Technologies) and Caroline Kruit (Metadecor).
The collaboration with the startup Airshade Technologies marked the beginning of our SOMBRA adventure. With the companies that joined the initiative (Alumet, MVRDV, ARUP, Van Rossum Consulting Engineers, AMOLF Institute, and Kersten Group), we elevated the project to an absurdly high level. Both the process and the outcome offer many positive learning moments, which we can carry forward into the next challenging project.
A Simple Game of Football
‘Back home’ in Kampen The Netherlands, we reflect on a week of extremes. The constructive conversations at the trade show, the positive reception of SOMBRA, the usual dynamics of a medium-sized construction company. The birthdays of four (!) colleagues. The handover of the façade for the materials depot for Plus Ultra in Utrecht – a modest project with panels from MD Strekmetaal – a fence, simple yet beautifully crafted. That too is something to be proud of. Together, we create remarkable façades. Together, we can achieve more than we sometimes realise. The Champions League arena and the football pitch around the corner: Metadecor plays on both. Football will be football 😉.
The materials depot of Plus Ultra in Utrecht (NL) with MD Expanded Metal, completed in week 19, 2025.